Five Takeaways: Genoa at Wauseon

Wauseon moved to 2-0 on the season by taking care of business in blow-out fashion against Genoa. Last season’s Division II runner-up won by a score of 66-38 and hardly played their starters in the second and fourth quarters.

Moving forward, here are the five things that this early season game tells us…

Kudos to the Wauseon coaching staff, headed by Chad Burt, on many fronts this evening, but especially in their 1-3-1 zone. The look that they showed for the first six minutes of the game fully takes advantage of Rotroff’s strengths. The 6’9” Duquesne commit uses his length and foot speed to protect the rim and make a pass into the middle rather useless.

Wauseon’s first unit did a great job of forcing the first pass into the corner and trapping immediately. From there, Rotroff makes all passes towards the rim difficult. They came out of the zone after grabbing a quick double-digit lead, but teams will need to have confident ball-handlers to deal with this look.

Gype, a 6’3” senior guard who has one offer from Indiana Sound Bend (IUSB), was awesome playing without the ball tonight. He worked up a sweat finding wide open 3-pointers, making clever fade cuts when his defender tried to jump screens. Gype finds touches on the block when his defender trails on baseline cuts. Their offense requires him to screen and make quick decisions also.

Gype excels in their half-court offense, a principle that he values in looking at colleges at the next level, as he told us in October, saying, “With the style that we play at Wauseon, it’s not the most typical style. It’s a bit of a slower pace … I think that I can adapt to about anything if I wanted to. But, I don’t want to get into a run-and-gun, no defense. I want to play fundamental basketball still.”

A Division III program would be fortunate to steal him, as he can play with Division II or NAIA guys.

Levi Seiler is sneaky good

When Wauseon graduates a loaded senior class, Seiler is going to be their top player. The 6’4” junior wing/forward showed promise tonight. Against Genoa’s physical slasher Jake Plantz, Seiler showed the quickness to stay in front and upper body strength to not budge when Plantz burrowed into him. Seiler scored a game-high 15, primarily on points in the paint. He pump fakes and draws contact consistently. Seiler can also handle, playing as Wauseon’s primary ball-handler for a stretch in the third quarter.

The Regional Championship runs through #34

Even against a Division II forward prospect in Genoa’s Drew Bench, Rotroff dominated when he was in the game. His value on both ends of the floor cannot be understated. There’s a lot of player and ball movement around the perimeter in their four-out motion offense, as their guards swing it around looking for an open triple or an angle for the post entry. When Rotroff catches, it’s one quick move and a bucket almost every time. Defensively, his wingspan and instincts make layups uncomfortable for opponents.

Wauseon isn’t very deep, but they play a slow enough style that the starting five should be able to log a lot of minutes in big games. Junior point guard Trent Armstrong doesn’t do anything special, but he takes care of the ball and facilitates the offense. Also, 6’4” senior Owen Newlove is another versatile defensive player alongside Gype and Seiler.

A healthy Wapakoneta team is the only Division II team in Northwest Ohio who could put up a fight against the Indians.

Plantz finished with 15 and Bench had 8 to lead Genoa’s scoring efforts tonight. Their teammates struggled to create offense for themselves. In turn, the two junior prospects forced the issue and turned the ball over quite a bit. We don’t believe their role at the next level will reflect what’s happening on this Genoa team. As a whole, the Comets will need to become more creative on offense to start winning games. They’re now 0-2 after finishing #11 in the Division III AP State Poll last season.